The Suez General Prosecution imprisoned three persons for 15 days on charges of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, setting fire to buildings, targeting security forces and inciting the killing of Brotherhood opponents.
Following the 30 June 2013 anti-Morsi mass protest, life sentences against anti-government protesters and activists have increased.
Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat listed leading figures in the banned Muslim Brotherhood group as “terrorists” in March, based on the new “terrorist entities” law.
Members include the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, prominent leader in the Freedom and Justice Party Mohamed Al-Beltagy, former speaker of parliament Saad El-Katatny, as well as other members in the Supreme Guidance Bureau.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree in February approving the “terrorist entities” law, detailing offences necessary for a group or organisation to be labelled a “terrorist entity”.
The law consists of 10 articles. Article 1 defines a terrorist entity as any group “practicing or intending to advocate by any means to disturb public order or endanger the safety of the community and its interests or risk its security or harm national unity”.
The law tasks the prosecution with creating a list with the names of terrorist entities and a list with the names of people in or associated with terrorist entities. This includes the names of the leaders, founders, members or participants of the group, and can also extend to people who provide “information or support in any way” to the listed group.
Twenty-one NGOs condemned the terrorist entities law for its ambiguity and restriction of freedoms and rights.
The law includes “broad terms in its definition of terrorist entities”, the NGOs’ statement said. The undersigned organisations note that the law relies on a broad, vague definition of actions on the basis of which individuals or groups may be designated terrorists. Under this definition, human rights defenders, political parties, or developmental associations may be easily labelled terrorist entities and their members terrorists, explained the joint statement.
